Corporate personality Development

Personality development and Career enhancement is a must for everyone. If you want to move up the corporate ladder, it's very important that you work on improving your skills like team building skills, leadership skills etc

Transcript

1. Definition: Personality distinguishes you from other people and defines your general nature. Your overall personality is composed of a collection of psychological characteristics or traits which determines your personal preferences and individual style of behavior.
2. PERSONALITY TRAITS  Locus of Control: An individual’s generalized belief about internal (self) versus external (situation or others) control is called locus of control.  It is the extent to which an individual believes that his or her actions determine his or her outcomes (success, job performance, achievement of a qualification, getting promoted etc.) obtained in life.  It is possible to classify individuals into two main categories, i.e., internals (individuals with internal locus of control) and externals (individuals with external locus of control).
3. Internal locus of control  Internal locus of control is possessed by an individual who believes that he or she controls his or her destiny (what happens to him or her in life).  If you believe that your behaviour determines everything that happens to you, you are an internal.
4. External locus of control  External locus of control is possessed by an individual who believes that other factors (other people, situations, luck etc.) determine his or her destiny.  If you believe that my behaviour has no impact on what happens to me but other people and luck determine your fate, you are an external.
5. Type A and Type B Personalities Type A Type B Type A personality is a personality trait that involves working competitively under pressure. Type B personality is a personality trait that involves working calmly without pressure. Type A personality works aggressively under pressure at an intense level with an impatient and competitive approach to others; Type B personality chooses and prefers a lowpressure life and is a more relaxed, easy- going, sociable person Type As are less effective performers in policy- making top management positions which have long-term planning as a major component. Surveys reveal that most top executives are Type Bs rather than Type As because of the reasons that Type As simply do not last long enough to rise to the highest management levels (due to high stress and deteriorated health); the irritability or hostility often shown by Type As has negative effects on their careers preventing them from rising to the top of their organizations; and impatience is often incompatible with the deliberate, carefully considered decisions required of top-level managers
6. Self-Esteem  Self-esteem is a personality trait that is concerned with the extent to which one has a feeling of self-worth. It is an individual’s general feeling of self-worth  You are a human being and you have a relatively stable perception about you. Who are you? Your view about yourself can be called self-concept.  Your self-concept reflects how you view yourself, What is your evaluation about your self-concept? Your evaluation about your self-concept can be called your self-esteem.
7.  A person with a high self-esteem exhibits the following characteristics: 1. Has a positive feeling about self. 2. Understands that there are self strengths and self weaknesses 3. Believes to have a higher number of strengths than a number of weaknesses 4. Believes that strengths are more important than weaknesses. 5. Believes that he or she is an important person. 6. Seeks responsibility 7. Inspires others to have confidence in him or her.
8. Self-Efficacy  Self-efficacy is defined as an individual’s beliefs and expectations about his or her ability to accomplish a specific task effectively. It is the degree to which you believe that you can perform a certain task successfully
9.  A person with a high self-efficacy exhibits the following characteristics: 1. Has a belief that he or she possesses the knowledge and skills needed to get the things done successfully. 2. Has the capability to exert the needed effort to accomplish the task 3. Can overcome any obstacles which may arise in achieving successful performance. 4. Has no doubt about reaching success on the task. 5. Has self-esteem.
10.  As a matter of fact some employees have more self-efficacy than others in organizations.  Below are several sources which can shape self-efficacy: 1. Past mastery experience 2. Observation (vicarious experience) 3. Persuasion 4. Assessment 5. Availability of help There is strong research evidence that self-efficacy leads to high performance on a wide variety of physical and mental tasks and has also led to success in breaking addictions, increasing pain tolerance, and recovering from illness
11. Self-Monitoring  Self-monitoring is a personality trait that has a great potential to affect behavior of a person at work. It is defined as the process of observing and controlling how we are perceived by others  It is the extent to which an individual adjusts his or her behavior according to signals or hints from other people or situations.  It is the tendency of a person to do modifying his or her behavior to the requirements or demands of specific situations so that others will have a good impression about him or her. High self-monitors tend to do better than low self-monitors in jobs requiring what are known as boundary-spanning activities which involve communicating and interacting with people from contrasting professional or occupational groups
12. Positive/Negative Affect  Positive affect is an individual tendency to accentuate the positive aspects of himself or herself, other people, and the world in general and Negative affect is an individual’s tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of himself or herself, other people, and the world in general  Alternatively positive affect is called positive affectivity and negative affect is called negative affectivity  If you have positive affect, you emphasize or make positive aspects of yourself, people and the world noticeable. You have the tendency of experiencing positive moods in a wide range of situations and under different conditions. Your dominant psychological inclination or persistent mood disposition is being optimistic  A person who is high in negative affect tends to have an overall sense of ill-being, considers people and events in a pessimistic light, and tends to experience negative emotional states.
13.  Negators have certain common characteristics: 1.They usually keep to themselves having no want to participate in group activities. 2. They often act selfishly. 3. They never think a project will succeed, even if they are in charge. 4. They have an “I can’t” attitude instead of an “I can” attitude. 5. They spend much of their time for criticizing their employer and every business decision made. 6. They might have a dysfunctional personal life and prefer that co-workers are miserable along with them. 7. They shy away from taking risks. 8. They focus on the negatives, when everyone else looks on the bright side. 9. They seek out ‘lose-lose’ situations, instead of ‘win-win’ situations. 10. They tend to be secretive and avoid communicating with people whenever they can.
14. Machiavellianism  Machiavellianism is a personality characteristic which determines the degree to which a person focuses on obtaining and using power to further his or her own ends, regardless of the impact on others  It is a personality trait that involves willingness to manipulate others for one’s own purposes.  Those who are very high on Machiavellianism are more difficult to be influenced by others. They do influencing others to achieve their personal goals by using lying, fake praise, or any other tools available. They have little or no guilt over harming others. They are not remorseful and have no fear and shame to do sins. Indeed these people do not have good personal character. Their presence will create a lot of potentially dangerous political activity.
15. The Big Five Dimensions  The big five dimensions of personality represent most fundamental traits of personality. Exhibit 1 presents definition of the dimensions and their sub-dimensions (elements).
16. Exhibit 1: The Big Five Dimensions and Their Sub-Dimensions Big Dimension Definition Associated Traits (SubDimensions) Conscientiousness The extent to which an individual is very careful and thorough to do his or her work properly Being responsible, hardworking, achievement oriented, persevering, and painstaking Extraversion The degree to which an individual is open, talkative, expressive, gregarious and lively, not quiet and reserved. Being social (living in groups and relating well with others), assertiveness, talkativeness, and gregariousness (enjoying being with other people). Agreeableness The extent to which an individual is cooperative and warm (friendly). Courteousness, flexibility, trusting, forgiving, being good-natured, soft
17. Emotional stability The extent to which an individual is calm and reasonable without having frequent changes of mood. Calmness, not being anxious, not being depressed, not being embarrassed, and ability to control anger Openness to experience The extent to which an individual is receptive (becomes ready and willing) to learn Being imaginative, being cultured, curiosity, being original, being broad- minded, and being artistically sensitive.
18. implications of the big five personality dimensions for organizations?  There are many implications. These dimensions are very im 1. Several of the big five dimensions are related to work performance and this is true across many different occupational groups (e.g., professionals, police personnel, managers, salespersons, skilled laborers) and several kinds of performance measures including ratings of individuals’ performance by managers or others, performance during training programs, and personnel records. 2. In general, conscientiousness shows the strongest association with task performance. 3. The more emotionally stable individuals are, the better their task performance. 4. Agreeableness is positively related to the interpersonal aspects of work (e.g., getting along well with others). 5. Extraversion is positively related to performance of jobs which require individuals to interact with many other people during the course of the day (e.g., managers, police officers, salespersons). 6. The higher the average scores of team members on conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability, the higher was their teams’ performance as rated by managers. 7. As a whole, the big five dimensions of personality are indeed a key determinant of job performance.
19. Activity 1: A Skills Builder  Below is given an instrument that has some statements about your generalized beliefs of things which happen in your life. Please tick the response that best fits your belief: that best reflects how much you agree or disagree with each statement.
20. Statements numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10 are statements which represent internal locus of control. The rest of the statements represent external locus of control. Give 1 point for ‘strongly disagree’; 2 points for ‘disagree’; 3 points for ‘indifferent’; 4 points for ‘agree’; and 5 points for ‘strongly agree’ for each statement. Finally get the total and use the following for interpretation: Points 10 – 18 High external locus of control 19 – 26 External locus of control 27 – 34 Indifferent 35 – 42 Internal locus of control 43 – 50 High internal locus of control If your total is 47, you have a high internal locus of control. If you want to be a person with high internal locus of control you are supposed to believe in statements numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10 and not to believe in the rest.
21. Activity 2: A Skills Builder Measuring Negativity Directions: In the space after each item, enter a number that characterizes your own feelings about that statement. Be honest. If you disagree strongly, enter SD; if you disagree, enter D; if you neither agree nor disagree, enter I; if you agree, enter A; if you strongly agree, enter SA. 1. I have a long lasting optimistic attitude about life instead of pessimistic attitude. ____ 2. I almost always see the bright side of life instead of dark side of life. ____ 3. I expect the best to happen instead of the worst or bad to happen. ____ 4. I have no serious plans (goals and ways of accomplishing those goals) for the future. ____ 5. I look at a glass of water as half full instead of half empty. ____ 6. I think of myself as a ‘loser’ instead of a ‘winner’. ____ 7. I expect that world and national things and events will not get better. ____ 8. I see no clear direction in the course of my life. ____ 9. I frequently look for the good in people instead of the bad. ____ 10. I am often unhappy. ____
22. Scoring: Statements numbered 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10 are positive statements (as far as negativity is concerned: increasing negativity). Hence, give 1 point for SD; 2 points for D; 3 points for I; 4 points for A; and 5 points for SA for each statement. All other statements are negative statements. Hence, give 1 point for SD; 2 points for A; 3 points for I; 4 points for D; and 5 points for SD for each negative statement. Finally get the total and use the following for interpretation: Points 10 – 18 Very low negativity 19 – 26 Low negativity 27 – 34 Moderate negativity 35 – 42 High negativity 43 – 50 Very high negativity
23. Activity 6: Psychological traits Below is given an instrument that has some statements about your generalized psychological traits. Please tick the response that best fits your genuine evaluation about you: that best reflects how much you agree or disagree with each statement.
25.  Statements numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 are statements which represent conscientiousness; statements numbered 5, 6, 7, and 8 tap the meaning of extraversion; statements 9, 10, 11, and 12 for agreeableness; statements 13, 14, 15, and 16 for emotional stability; and statements 17, 18, 19, and 20 for openness to experience. All statements are positive. Hence, give 1 point for ‘strongly disagree’; 2 points for ‘disagree’; 3 points for ‘indifferent’; 4 points for ‘agree’; and 5 points for ‘strongly agree’ for each statement. Finally get the total and use the following for interpretation:  Points 20 – 36 Very low on the big five  37 – 52 Low on the big five  53 – 68 Moderate on the big five  67 – 84 High on the big five  85 – 100 Very high on the big five